Red Squirrel

Amy has prevented the squirrel from getting into the feeders, so now he eats everything the birds drop on the ground. On Sunday I am going to write a long nature post on this squirrel and his shenanigans for the Unplugged Project. For those of you who know the behaviors of red squirrels, the post is probably old news. But I learned amazing things about this guy today. It's a shame he didn't stand on his hind legs in the sunshine for my photo. A better lit photo is here.

 
Technorati tags: red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus 

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Wordless Wednesday: American Goldfinch In Winter Plumage

Visit more participants by clickingWordless Wednesday

Carduelis+tristis American+Goldfinch

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Heads or Tails: Three

Three Common Redpolls (Carduelis flammea) in today's snowstorm.

Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum)
found this past summer at Moose Bog in Victory, Vermont

To see more Heads or Tails participants, visit Skittles
or click Heads or Tails.
Thank you so much for visiting.

Carduelis+flammea Common Redpoll Painted+Trillium Trillium+undulatum

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New Bird At The Feeder

I have this new bird at the feeder that likes the thistles. Does anyone know what it is? For more views of this bird, please see my Barton Daily Photo blog. Thank you for the help.

Technorati tags:

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Downy Woodpecker

Picoides pubescens

Readers of my blog will need to be patient while I post bird photos now.
I can't tell you how excited I am.

Technorati tags: Picoides+pubescens downy+woodpecker
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Wordless Wednesday: Happy Halloween Crow

My photo enhanced with Photoshop Elements diffuse glow.
Part of Rachel Clark Design's Friday Filter Challenge.

Technorati tags: Rachel+Clark+Designs Friday+Filter+Challenge Halloween diffuse+glow Wordless+Wednesday
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Heads or Tails: Halloween

This bat is a real-life character in one of my real-life bat encounters.
You must click on this to see the large version in a new window.

I used Photoshop Elements, diffuse glow filter and mezzotint with edge blur, an iPhoto effect. This was done in conjunction with Rachel Clark Design's Friday Filter Challenge.

Technorati tags: Rachel+Clark+Designs Friday+Filter+Challenge Halloween bats diffuse+glow Heads+or+Tails

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Cats Tuesday: Gross-Out Charlie

The contents of Killer Charlie's stomach when he yakked outside:

• 1 backbone
  
• 2 skulls
  
• assorted front and rear legs
  
• a couple of itty bitty feet (nearly invisible)

And thank you for dropping by! Happy COT!

Technorati tags: Cats+on+Tuesday 

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National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat

The sign on the barn last week as the leaves began to turn and mist comes down Barton Mountain.

Back in July, Wingnut and I set out to certify my property with the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. It was one of the easiest jobs we've ever done because we didn't have to do a thing. But we made a video and observed much. I did learn that I have more seeps (underground springs) and wild apple trees than I had ever thought. The habitat around the seeps is different than the habitat ten feet from the seep.

Buddy (left) and Wingnut (right) hiking in July.

A seep (underground spring): an important source of water for wildlife.

Charlie and the sign.

I finally sent my money in for the certification and the sign ($41.50, so I had to wait over a month until I could justify this luxury). The sign came last week and I promptly took photos of it after I banged it into the barn wall. The leaves were just beginning to turn. I hope you can appreciate the beauty of where I live from these photos.

I don't have the greatest barn in the world but it's going to last forever: it's built on cedar. And it is mine (and the cats). Who would have ever thought I would own land, a barn and a hundred year old house in Vermont? All by myself, all alone.

After years of adjusting to being a widow, the "alone" part is painful now. But someday there will be a Mr. Meeyauw to share this beauty and peace. And to share murderous cats, playful skunks, threatening moose, crazy dogs, church suppers, library movie nights, coyotes hunting beaver, herds of deer in the yard, does with fawns in the meadows, innumerable birds, and insanity-producing winters.

My thanks to Mom Unplugged who first wrote of this program here in her blog Unplug Your Kids. You have taught me so much and reminded me of the reasons why I am a teacher.


Technorati tags: National+Wildlife+Federation Certified+Wildlife+Habitat Mom+Unplugged

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Two Short Moose Non-Encounters

No photos. I have bus duty two mornings a week at school. Last week the principal came out and told us that a bull moose was in the village. The village is two roads that parallel each other, 50 feet apart, for 100 yards; the moose was on the other road. The principal waited while I got my camera from my car, but of course, the bull never came. We kept our eyes extra open in case he did come and we had to get 100 kids inside the school quickly.

kkkkkkkkkk

No photos again. Amy tied the dogs out from the back bathroom door last night and they immediately began barking wildly. We were concerned, not because of moose, but because of that skunk that has been hanging around for a week. It has been on the opposite side of the house from where Buddy and Zorro were harrassing it. The past two nights this skunk has shot and there have not been pleasant odors here. So Amy hollered at the dogs to be quiet and get back in. Sophie did come in. But Scout refused. Amy suddenly began calling me, a bit panicky. When I got there, I helped quiet the dogs. Amy said there was a big animal making big noises in the woods where it was walking. Also, it was snorting. I figure it was a moose. A bear is noisy walking through the woods but sounds like a dog. The dogs came in and we all went to bed (even all the cats).

We lost power from midnight to 5 AM. This morning, as I read this week's paper (which comes Thursday) I saw that this was another scheduled outage to repair stuff. I should read the paper earlier in the week.

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A Third Skunk Encounter

Because of the heat, the death of Kitten, and stress caused by Anna's deep sadness, I was not able to sleep except for three hours on Tuesday night. I gave up at 4 AM on Wednesday morning and let the cats out into the dark. Fifteen minutes later, I happened to look out the window. In the side yard, Buddy and Zorro were playing and actively interacting with a skunk! (If you don't remember my other adventures with skunks, you can click here and here if you care to read about them.)

The skunk had been trying to dig up grubs but the cats kept pouncing on it as if it were another cat. The skunk was irritated and pounced back. When she did that, the boys thought she wanted to play and pounced again. This kept up for quite awhile. I experienced a meteoric rise in blood pressure. The cats and skunk were close enough to the house so that I was hesitant to close the windows because the noise of closing them might trigger a skunk hit.

What do you do when you don't know what to do? Walk away. So I did. When I returned to the window fifteen minutes later, the gang had gone somewhere else.

Two hours later, driving down my road, I saw this rainbow that arched over the entire town of Barton from Orleans and my mountain to Barton Village. Kitten's rainbow bridge.

Technorati tags: skunks cats rainbow+bridge

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Wordless Wednesday: My Obligatory Perching Seagull Photo

Technorati tags: seagull Newport Vermont
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Heads or Tails: Hobby

New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae)

Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)

Common Buttercup (Ranunculus acris)

Playing with iPhoto 7 from iLife '08. I'm getting different results and some I don't like, like the noise in my macros. I am posting these to see what they look like in Blogger and in different browsers.

Technorati tags: Heads+or+Tails, New+England+Aster, Aster+novae-angliae, Black-capped+Chickadee, Parus+atricapillus, Common+Buttercup, Ranunculus+acris
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A Doe Came Back

Remember me writing that a bunch of deer had been by? One came back after the linemen were here. You can read about her and see another photo of here on my photo a day blog. She looks pretty plump here. I hope it is apples and not babies. Isn't it a bit late for deer babies? Snow will be here in two months. She does not have a tag on her ear; it is reflection of something.

When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window.

Technorati tags: whitetail, deer, doe

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North American Wildlife Wants Your Photos

North American Wildlife: 

Your Photos Wanted: The site includes nearly all of the large mammals, but there are still a few gaps. There are more gaps in the coverage of smaller mammals - rats, mice, voles etc. If you have any species that are not shown on the site, please send them to me and I will include on the site.

All I have are dead things: star-nosed moles, shrews, jumping mice, bats. I don't think they want the critters dead and chewed.

But if you have a photo and live in North America, send it to them.

I don't think will pay you, though.

Technorati tags: North+American+Wildlife, photography

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A Sad Night

It never entirely stopped raining last night. The mist and clouds moved slowly through the meadows and the sky. Late at night I heard an animal dying in the woods. This doesn't happen too often, but it continued for a long time last night. It went on for so long that I went to the door to look. I wouldn't have seen anything because of the distance and the dark; but I could not just lie there and listen.

As I looked out, the moon had lit up the thick mist in the southern sky. Lightning flashed off in the far southwest of the sky. And then I heard gun shots. Whatever was dying had died. I felt overwhelming sadness, but gratitude, too.

We got up very late this morning (7 AM). It is still humid, but much cooler. In fact, the temperatures have gone down since I got up. It began to rain. The cats went out, and all have returned. It is a cat sleep-over day today.

k k k k k k

Five deer came down my drive this morning. One adult and four young little ones. I doubt that one mother had quadruplets, so now I am wondering how they bond together in herds for the winter. I startled them, so just as they were going to cross the road, they turned left and returned to the wild apple orchard. I'm glad they will be here for the winter. I have apple trees all over in the woods for them. The apples seem especially abundant this year.

After the deer left, Barton Village Electric came. There is a right-of-way on my property for them (or for somebody). The man went up the ROW a bit (how, I don't know, since it is all underground springs and very seepy). Then he drove off. Less than 30 minutes later, a big electrical utility truck with a cherry picker came. They put a man in the bucket and raised him higher than the phone pole. He used binoculars to look up the mountain. I heard mention of getting a helicopter to check on something. Then they drove off.

I need to close the windows and pick up the house. I am looking forward to returning to work tomorrow.

thunder, storms, lightning, deer, death

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Field Of Sunflowers

On my break I took a ride and found a field of sunflowers. They were not at their peak but were wonderful to see nonetheless. I also saw, and photographed, my first indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea). It was a good day.

Technorati tags: indigo+bunting Vermont sunflowers Passerina+cyanea

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American Kestrel

American+Kestrel (Falco Sparverius)

I have spotted American Kestrels in three locations (at home, Westmore Mountain and the Coventry Marshes) but they have been difficult for me to capture on camera. They perch on phone wires. If a car drives by at normal speed they remain on the wire. But as soon as you slow or stop to observe them, they fly off. Even though these shots are poor, I am proud that we managed to capture this kestrel.

American+Kestrel (Falco Sparverius)

Technorati tags: American+Kestrel Falco+Sparverius

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Birding In Coventry Marsh

Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)

unknown juvenile duck

Technorati tags: Hooded+Merganser Lophodytes+cucullatus Wood+Duck Aix+sponsa

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It's Too Cold Here

Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus)

I was frozen when I got up this morning. The cats were frozen. Mouse slept under the covers all night. Then it got colder.

These little birds were raising a ruckus with each other (not because of cats) out back. I managed in my frozen fog to get these two shots. I don't know what they are.

Then the blackest cloud came over and down the mountain at me, blotting out the sun and what little warmth there was. Outdoor cats ran in. Birds disappeared and thunder broke out with torrential rains.

I was expected in Rutland, so I put on my knit thermals, jeans, packed a jacket and sweats for the cold nights, both my hoodies, and left. Shivering. It was 53° in Barton and dropping at noon.

Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus)

Technorati tags: Least+Flycatcher Empidonax+minimus

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